Americans against foreign disaster relief

Josh Marshall posts:

Ayn Rand institute says US aid to disaster victims is wrong, though private charity "may be entirely proper, especially considering that most of those affected by this tragedy are suffering through no fault of their own." (emphasis added)

I'm waiting to hear about the minority of victims suffering because of self-inflicted tsunami damage.

This is really an incredible stance to take publicly, but David Holcberg at the Ayn Rand site is taking it:

Every dollar the government hands out as foreign aid has to be extorted from an American taxpayer first. Year after year, for decades, the government has forced American taxpayers to provide foreign aid to every type of natural or man-made disaster on the face of the earth

[...]

The reason politicians can get away with doling out money that they have no right to and that does not belong to them is that they have the morality of altruism on their side. According to altruism--the morality that most Americans accept and that politicians exploit for all it's worth--those who have more have the moral obligation to help those who have less. This is why Americans--the wealthiest people on earth--are expected to sacrifice (voluntarily or by force) the wealth they have earned to provide for the needs of those who did not earn it.

[...]

It is past time to question--and to reject--such a vicious morality that demands that we sacrifice our values instead of holding on to them.

Next time a politician gives away money taken from you to show what a good, compassionate altruist he is, ask yourself: By what right?

You know, I've been asking myself that about my tax money the government uses to bomb other people into the afterlife. I think the answer is (in this administration, anyway): divine right.

It does appear, however, that this administration has not been too keen on coughing up disaster aid for those lazy, unworthy Indonesians. Holcberg will no doubt want to spend some of his discretionary dollars on all future Republican campaigns.